USC defends the belt, 23–13, at home over South Carolina.
AP poll, week 4: South Carolina unranked at USC No. 5 · No. 1 that week: Penn State. The belt vs. the polls →
Where this game sits in the lineage
USC came in 679 days into reign #167, which began with a win over Washington, with 17 defenses already behind it; this was its 18th defense. USC went on to defend it 6 more times before Washington took it on November 15, 1980, 735 days after the reign began.
For South Carolina this was its 6th shot at the belt; it had never held the belt.
This is the only time South Carolina and USC have met with the belt on the line.
About this game
On September 20, 1980, USC defeated visiting South Carolina 23-13 in a regular season week 4 matchup. The defending belt holder kept the title with the victory.
Written by Claude, strictly from this site’s own record of the game — the score and what it meant for the belt. CFBD doesn’t have a box score for games this old, so nothing here is invented beyond what’s verifiably on file.
Sources Game record: College Football Data (id 49821) · This game in the downloadable dataset